then there was no Incarnation, and if there was no Incarnation, there is no salvation. Where then is Christianity? What gospel is there to preach? The Apostle Paul’s response to the position o f the Bishop is best expressed in those strong God-in spired words, “ He that preacheth any other gospel, let him be accursed.” Perhaps we can best understand the tragic con dition in which liberalism has led the Bishop by borrowing a few statements from Look’s senior edi tor, Christopher S. Wren. He says, “ Pike has spent a ministry rubbing people’s noses in their own piety.” I can think (and without too much effort) of more practical and edifying ways for a minister to spend his time. Though hypocritical piety is cer- , tainly not to be condoned in the church, yet one wonders if the Bishop has ever transmitted to his people any message from which true piety can grow. If not, then who is he to be their judge? The Look article informs us that Pike “beats against comfortable orthodoxy like the humming- r bird against the window pane.” That’s certainly an interesting analogy for an author by the name of Wren to use! It would have been well had he ex plained his use of the term, “ comfortable ortho doxy.” However, we can assure the Bishop that long after the hummingbirds’ wings are worn out, the window pane o f orthodoxy will still be there. Apparently Pike feels that orthodoxy forces people into “ hypocrisy or drives them out o f the church.” He is convinced that the “ old-time religion keeps more people out than in.” That’s a strange statement to make in the face of readily observable facts. One would think that the Bishop would not have to go beyond the borders of his diocese to dis- cover that old-time religion-preaching churches are the ones into which people are going. There is something about the religious picture in England that demonstrates the barrenness of liberalism. “ Only 10% o f the English attend church,” says the Look article. To this it adds, “ the 14,500 Anglican churches are more often relics of the past than signposts of the future.” Who is there to deny that this is the direct result of liber alism? Where liberalism strikes, death follows. Almost without exception, the live church is char acterized by an evangelical message. Apparently, Pike rejects the doctrine o f the
Virgin Birth on the basis that “ the earliest gospel, St. Mark, did not mention the Virgin Birth, and St. Paul regarded Jesus as born o f a woman under the law.” The rejection o f the Virgin Birth on this kind o f a basis is juvenile. There is certainly noth ing scholarly about that kind o f approach. If the Virgin Birth is going to be rejected on the basis that it was not mentioned in Mark’s Gospel, then there are a great many other doctrinal truths which also will have to be rejected. Of course, it is obvious to even a theological babe that the use of Paul’s statement concerning Jesus’s being bom “ of a woman under the law” is no denial on Paul’s part o f the Virgin Birth. The Bishop indicates that he accepts the account of the risen Christ but that it does not make any real difference whether the resurrected Christ was actually “ seen by different people on different occa sions,” or whether His followers only “ sensed He was there.” It would be quite as logical to suggest that it doesn’t really matter whether a man’s wife is actually with him in his home or whether he just has a sense o f her presence. For most of us, it would make quite a difference. How about applying the same logic to the teacher in a classroom or to the pilot in a commercial plane? According to Look magazine, Bishop Robinson, the author of “Honest to God,” predicts, “ The struc ture of the church as a religious club Will inevit ably find itself squeezed out . . . Not many people today are interested in a religious club.” It is un deniable that if any branch of the church of Jesus Christ today has become or is becoming a religious club, it is the liberal branch. It is interesting, there fore, to have a leader in liberal circles admit that people are getting sick and tired o f a church which is no more than a religious club. The evangelical has known this long since. “ The Bishop knows,” says author Wren, “ that when you discard beliefs, you may end up with unbelief.” This in itself is sad enough. But when you deify your unbelief as Pike has apparently done, you not only destroy your own soul but also you place those who follow in your footsteps on the brink o f destruction. I find it difficult to understand why this ex- Naval officer, ex-lawyer, ex-Roman Catholic, and ex-agnostic, is not an ex-Episcopalian.
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MAY, 1966
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